Republicans and Democrats in Washington are at each other’s throats, and that situation is replicated in many statehouses over many issues these days. But there’s at least one exception: broadband.
The national debate on how to expand and speed up broadband access, and how to pay for it, has recently been tied to the fate of President Biden’s American Jobs Plan, also known as the infrastructure bill. That legislation would allocate $100 billion to build out broadband infrastructure to reach 100% coverage; encourage municipal broadband and deployment by rural co-ops; and, at least initially, provide direct subsidies to broadband subscribers who otherwise couldn’t afford it.